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Abstract Green space matters for mental health but is under constant pressure in an increasingly urbanising world. Often there is little space available in cities for green areas, so it is vital to optimise the design and usage of these available green spaces. To achieve this, experts in planning, design and nature conservation need to know which types and characteristics of green spaces are most beneficial for residents' mental health. A scoping review of studies that compare different green space types and characteristics on mental health was conducted. A total of 215 (experimental, observational and qualitative) papers were included in the scoping review. This review highlights a high level of heterogeneity in study design, geographical locations, mental health outcomes and green space measures. Few of the included studies were specifically designed to enable direct comparisons between green space types and characteristics (e.g. between parks and forests). The included studies have predominantly experimental research designs looking at the effects of short‐term exposure to green space on short‐term mental health outcomes (e.g. affect and physiological stress). More studies enabled only indirect comparisons, either within the same study or between different studies. Analysis of the direction of the mental health outcomes (positive, neutral, negative) from exposure to various types and characteristics of green space found positive (i.e. beneficial) effects across all green space types. However, green space characteristics did appear to render more diverse effects on mental health, which is especially the case for vegetation characteristics (e.g. higher vegetation density can be negative for mental health). The scoping review reveals gaps in the present evidence base, with a specific need for more studies directly comparing green space types and characteristics within the same study. Proposed future research directions include the use of longitudinal research designs focusing on green space characteristics, considering actual exposure and systematically addressing heterogeneity in factors influencing the relation between green spaces and mental health (e.g. type of interaction, user experience). Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Letters and diplomatic reports have always been at the heart of diplomacy. However, in terms of travel literature, ministerial papers are not necessarily related to the genre. Diplomats normally made themselves the focus of attention in their reports, describing their interactions at court and rarely providing detailed narratives on the cities and palaces that they visited. In official correspondence, they might not comment at length on architecture and the manners of the people whose country they were visiting but in letters to friends and family they may reveal more. English diplomats could remark on festivities, construction and other visiting embassies. This paper traces the presence of Versailles, its court and visitors within the correspondence of ministers representing the kings of England, afterwards Great Britain. It aims to account for and describe the presence of the palace within diplomatic correspondence and hopes to trace both similarities and differences in ministerial perspectives.

This paper discusses the scars of capitalism in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway and ‘Kew Gardens’. Following one day of the character’s life, the discussion will investigate how the novel and the short story introduce the capitalist ideology that dictates the character’s everyday life and how the characters, in different ways and to certain extents, react to it. In Mrs. Dalloway, Woolf depicts capitalism as an oppressive system that can be very rewarding to those who submit to its ideals and, at the same time, very catastrophic to those who try to confront it or question its validity. In ‘Kew Gardens’, the characters, affected by the looming war, try to come to terms with the meaningless materiality, the hollowness, and insecurity that capitalism produces; In both texts, capitalism is introduced as a tyrannous system that uses everything in the characters’ everyday life as suppressive tools to enforce its values and maintain its continuity.

Progress is required in response to how cities can support greater biodiversity. This calls for more research on how landscape designers can actively shape urban ecologies to deliver context-specific empirical bases for green space intervention decisions. Design experiments offer opportunities for implemented projects within real-world settings to serve as learning sites. This paper explores preliminary ecological outcomes from a multidisciplinary team on whether purposefully engineered native grassland gardens provide more habitat functions for insects than mainstream gardens in the City of Tshwane, South Africa. Six different sites were sampled: two recently installed native grassland garden interventions (young native), two contemporary non-native control gardens (young non-native) on the same premises and of the same ages as the interventions, one remnant of a more pristine native grassland reference area (old native), and one long-established, non-native reference garden (old non-native). Plant and insect diversity were sampled over one year. The short-term findings suggest that higher plant beta diversity (species turnover indicating heterogeneity in a site) supports greater insect richness and evenness in richness. Garden size, age, and connectivity were not clear factors mediating urban habitat enhancement. Based on the preliminary results, the researchers recommend high native grassland species composition and diversity, avoiding individual species dominance, but increasing beta diversity and functional types when selecting garden plants for urban insect biodiversity conservation in grassland biomes.

From the famous poem The Garden by Andrew Marvell, to that of Seamus Heaney’s Digging, gardens have been depicted as idyllic places, as in classical pastoral poetry and Renaissance poetry and symbolic of ideas about identity, the past and memory. In what is now suggested by the scientists as the appropriate term for the controversial last geological period, some starting it with The Industrial Revolution and some dating it as early as the Agricultural Revolution and the Neolithic Age, “the anthropocene”, the human outlook on gardens and nature as a whole has to be reassessed. The globally catastrophic threat of the immanent extinction of humans as a species loudly drawn attention to by Slavoj Zizek in his 2012 text Welcome to the Anthropocene, calls for a further repositioning of the human than the ecocritical approaches up to now. In this light the whole world can be seen as Eden, the ‘Garden of Bliss’ about to be lost by humans who have inextricably doomed themselves in capitalism. This paper will look at the depiction of gardens in various examples of literature such as the Epic of Gılgamesh, religious poems, Romantic Poetry, Bacon’s Essay on Gardens, Shakespeare’s plays and Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland within an anthropocentric framework.

This paper presents the perspectives of participants from three Community Gardens in Edinburgh, Scotland and investigates the role that food growing plays in their recreation and leisure activities, personal development, the development of their children and the impact on their communities. Thirty-eight participants were interviewed using qualitative, semi-structured questions to explore their motivations and experiences from their involvement with community gardens. Participant observation was used to better understand the importance of the gardens in their lives. The participants felt the gardens were places that fostered neighbourly engagement, increased leisure opportunities, social support, community health, connectedness, and community diversity. They were also places that promoted knowledge exchange inside the garden and in to the homes of the people and the community itself. Anxieties over land use and land reform highlighted how community gardens symbolised empowerment but also showed resistance to the hegemonic structure of local council and government. In effect, the research suggests that community gardens grow much more than just food, they grow community.

People in most developing countries’ rural areas around the world face food insecurity and malnutrition due to many factors, including low purchasing power. There is renewed interest in backyard or home gardens as a source of income and a pathway out of poverty and food insecurity among rural households. This paper identifies and analyzes the factors that influence income generation from backyard farming among backyard farmers in the rural communities of Bojanala district municipality in the North West province. Using a structured questionnaire, cross-sectional data was collected from 220 backyard farmers. Multiple linear regression was used to analyze the data; the findings reveal that gender of household head, formal employment, farm ownership, farming experience and annual income from livestock had a positive and significant influence on income generation from backyard farming. To maximize the potential of backyard gardens as a source of income generation and livelihood, policymakers and relevant government departments must pay close attention to these variables

Urbanized ecosystems and urban human populations are expanding around the world causing many negative environmental effects. A challenge for achieving sustainable urban social-ecological systems is understanding how urbanized landscapes can be designed and managed to minimize negative outcomes. To this end, an interdisciplinary Ecological Landscaping conference was organized to examine the interacting sociocultural and ecological causes and consequences of landscaping practices and products. This special issue of Cities and the Environment contains a diverse set of articles arising from that conference. In this introductory paper, we describe the meaning of ecological landscaping and a new conceptual framework that helps organize the topic’s complex issues. The essence of ecological landscaping is a holistic systems-thinking perspective for understanding the interrelationships among physical-ecological and sociocultural variables that give rise to the patterns and processes of biodiversity, abiotic conditions, and ecosystem processes within and among individually-managed urban landscape parcels. This perspective suggests that 1) variables not considered part of traditional landscaping and 2) the effects of landscaping within an individual parcel on variables outside of it must both be considered when making design and management decisions about a parcel. To illustrate how these points help create a more holistic, ecological approach to landscaping, a traditional ecosystem model is used to create a framework for discussing how sociocultural and physical-ecological inputs to a landscape parcel affect its characteristics and outputs. As exemplified by papers in this issue, an integrated sociocultural-ecological approach to the study of urban landscaping practices and products is needed to 1) understand why and how humans design and mange urban landscape parcels, 2) describe how the combined characteristics and outputs of many parcels give rise to the emergent ecosystem properties of urbanized areas, and 3) develop effective educational programs that catalyze adoption of sustainable landscaping choices and practices. The paper concludes with a discussion of challenges for the future of ecological landscaping research and practice, and a list of preliminary guidelines for ecological landscaping. We hope that this special issue will increase understanding, visibility, and research about the value of an ecological approach to urban landscaping.

This article analyzes the relationship between environmental specificities and the cultivation of public gardens in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in the city of Fortaleza, in the northeast region of Brazil. First, it examines the planted tree species and the creation of ponds in public gardens relative to hydric aspects and sun abundance in the city. Second, the essay describes the introduction of American windmills, known as cata-ventos in Brazil, by documenting their origin, their utility for pumping underground water stored in iron tanks, the use of this system for garden irrigation, as well as their disappearance. The paper uses iconographic and written documentary sources, such as newspapers, albums, magazines, photos, postcards, as well as chronicler’s reports and memoirs, and specialized literature on American windmills. Thus, it offers new references for garden historiography in Brazil concerning the existence of utilitarian artifacts for maintaining public gardens.

This article studies urban gardening as a form of social resilience. It analyses its role and impact on society in a context of social and financial crisis through the lens of the debate about the commons on the basis of three case studies conducted in Brussels in 2013. The study connects the specificities of the current social and economic context with the new wave of urban gardening from a people-centred perspective. Both the motivations and the outcomes of this form of activism are analysed and led to the conclusion that being involved in urban gardening represents not only a way to cope with economic and social threats but also a tool to rebuild and reshape social bonds. The paper aims to contribute to the current debate about the commons, intended as a form of resilience and a tool of social change rather than a simple alternative economic model. It aims to do so through the analysis of urban gardening practices, which are more commonly studied from the perspective of urban agriculture, food production, access to land and urbanism.

The turn of the 19th and the 20th centuries signified the appearance of a new trend in art called Art Nouveau in England, Stile floreale in Italy, and in Poland – secesja. It was an attempt to escape from the style that copied historical forms and set a new direction of development. The main inspiration for the creators of this period became nature, its asymmetry, variety of textures, subtle colors or smooth, and wavy lines. Artistic motifs were drawn from the richness of native flora and fauna. Flowering shrubs, perennials and creepers were especially inseparable decorative and compositional elements of a garden. Secession had a significant impact on painting, sculpture, architecture, and garden design. The space surrounding people was treated comprehensively by blurring the boundaries between different arts. A multitude of shrubs – especially roses and lots of perennials such as Lilium, Iris, and Phlox, gave the impression of architecture immersing in the surrounding garden. The aim of the paper was to briefly analyze the Art Nouveau style and present the diversity of species used in the gardens of that period.

Despite their obvious functional and stylistic differences, hedge mazes and English landscape gardens have salient symbolic and structural similarities which make them fruitful objects of comparative analysis. Both invert the norms expected of interior and exterior spaces, of human cultivation and “wilderness”, creating landscapes of semiotic uncertainty. Being at once natural and cultural, both types of space present a “problem to be solved” either by reaching a centre or understanding a layout. Both “play” with the notion of boundary by constructing uncrossable and at times oppressive walls from seemingly fragile plant matter or by hiding their boundaries. At the same time there are important differences which make this comparison of boundary spaces even more interesting: hedge mazes and landscape gardens are distinguishable by their respective structural levels, the presence or absence of a centre, their relation to other parts of gardens and connected human habitations. Using Juri Lotman’s notion of hybrid and transitional objects characteristic of boundary mechanisms, this paper explores the semiotically dense nature-culture boundary which these mazes and gardens both inhabit and create. The objects of our analysis are 17th-century English mazes and early English gardens dating from the beginning of the 18th century: mazes at Longleat and Hampton Court, and landscape gardens such as Rousham and Stowe.

The history of Paronella Park is a tale of migration from Europe to far north Queensland; underscored by the music of a diversity of cultures that weaves a rich tapestry through this narrative; set to a backdrop of tropical wilderness in the rainforest of Mena Creek, via Innisfail. Jose Paronella arrived in north Queensland, Australia from Catalonia, Spain in 1911; where he spent many years working as a cane cutter. In 1929 he bought thirteen acres of land on Mena Creek to fulfil his dream of creating a Spanish castle and tourist resort. By 1935 Paronella’s dream had become a reality, with the completed construction of Paronella Park: a Spanish castle, picnic area, ballroom, movie theatre, hydro-electric power system, tennis courts and botanical gardens. Paronella Park became the cultural hub of the Mena Creek-Innisfail area, providing entertainment in movies, dances, balls and theatre. North Queensland was a base for Allied Service personnel during World War II, so musical activities increased greatly during this time with Australian and United States soldiers frequenting Paronella Park on rest and recreation. From this heyday, Paronella Park has survived destruction by cyclones and floods, fire, years of neglect, and finally restoration of much of the property. Over the past decade, Paronella Park has won extensive tourism awards. In 2010, to commemorate Paronella Park’s 75th anniversary, the musical The Impossible Dream was written and performed in Cairns. This paper traces the musical history of Paronella Park, investigates the cultural and musical activities performed there, identifies the bands and musicians who played at Paronella Park, their musical styles and repertoire, discusses the contribution of Paronella Park to tourism in north Queensland, and evaluates the influences of Spanish culture and music on the identity of the Mena Creek community. Music and lyrics from The Impossible Dream are transcribed and analysed to correlate their musical links to entertainment at Paronella Park during the 1930s and 1940s and identify Spanish influences in the musical score. The research also evaluates the impact of The Impossible Dream on recent tourism at Paronella Park, investigates current musical entertainment at Paronella Park and its potential for future development.

A collection of documents held in the National Archives in France, in the papers of the Bâtiments du Roi, concern the replanting schedule of the gardens of Versailles and of Trianon, called “regarnis” or replenishment. It comprises twenty orders for plants addressed to the Nurseries of the king between 1753 and 1772, drafted on the same model and containing the same information: quantity, name and destination of each plant. Study of this unbroken series allows connections between plant species and their part in landscaping, thus creating a hierarchy among plants and landscape components. These replanting orders further demonstrate the desire to maintain – as well as the difficulty of doing so – the gardens in their original state and cast new light on the management decisions of various gardens during the reign of Louis XV.

Paper discusses the ways in which rhythmic temporality of yearly course was woven into the way people lived, experienced and transformed their life in the Balkans Neolithic. It examines how routine social and material practices on gardens that were structured within a year extend their duration to the lifecourse of people, objects, generations and historical change. By attending the garden during the year, people not only observe the process of growth, but actively participate in it. The generative and regenerative powers of gardens are maintained through work and accumulation of substances, which originate from elsewhere, house, midden, animal pens. This flow of substances is not only way of linking houses, gardens, animals and people in a web of relations, but also creates the history of the particular plot. Through the agency of gardens, the substances of humans, plants, animals and ancestors become intertwined and feed into each other.